Cytology by capillarity and anatomopathological diagnosis of solid breast tumors.

A study was conducted on material obtained by capillarity puncture (74 punctures) from 71 patients with breast tumors. The material was fixed in absolute alcohol and stained by the Papanicolaou method and the result was classified as insufficient material, or as negative, suspect or positive cytology. After tumor exeresis, the anatomopathological results of each patient were compared to the cytology data. A single false-positive case was obtained among 44 patients (97% specificity) and 9 false-negative cases were obtained among 16 patients (56% sensitivity).